Subject: Downey woodpecker-slate colored Junco
Date: Dec 6 20:48:14 2000
From: john rogers - johrog at bmi.net


I observed 2 male downey woodpeckers come into a tree. They put their bills
straigfht up into the air and fluffed their feathers and sort of danced .
The whole time they faced each other, their necks and bills pointed to the
sky. They were about 3 inches apart. They would fly to another limb and
repeat the performance. . One or both birds would fly a short distance and
then one would fly to the other and the performance would be repeated. It
must have gone on for about 5 minutes. Very interesting and intertaining.
Is this normal behavior? I've never seen them act this way before. A
little later I saw just 1 male and still later a female.

A slate colored junco has been coming to the feeder for the past week. He
certainly gets chased by the other juncos a great deal of the time.

My husband and I are long time birders, but new to e-mail birding. We are
learning a lot by reading your observations. Thanks everyone!

Sue Rogers
College Place, WA
johrog at bmi.net